Volume 2, Number 2 - Winter 1965
From the 1873-74 Notebook of Ely M. Rittenhouse
Courtesy of Richard Lee Whorton
In 1873-74 Ely M. Rittenhouse, a Taney County merchant, carried a small notebook in which he jotted down business transactions and bits of information which interested him or which might prove useful. A storekeeper often was called upon to supply more than merchandise: his customers and neighbors used his store as a meeting place and, besides handing him shopping lists to be filled, they looked to him for advice on medical problems, how to cure baldness, how to get ‘linnen’ white, or asked him for words to a prayer or a patriotic song to be used at a community meeting. These samples from the notebook indicate that Mr. Rittenhouse was capable of helping his customers in countless ways.
Homemade Ink
This Ink is a beautiful black, flows freely and does not corrode the pen in the least:
To 5 gallons of water at boiling heat, add 1/2 lb. logwood, 1/2 oz. bi-chromate of Potash and 1/2 an oz. of prussiate of potash. It is then ready for use. Cost 15 cts. per gallon.
Shopping List
2 yds red check flannel
2 yds red flannel
1 1/2 yds pink calico
2 lbs sugar
2 or 3 lbs peaches or blackberries
3 1/2 yds flannel for shirt
1 spool white thread
10 yds calico for dress
20 lbs flour
1 pr pants
5 lbs beans
1 lb coffee
soap, shoe strings, pepper, candy.
Dr. Gunn’s Favorite Remedy for Fever & Ague
Sulphate of Quinine, 20 grs; Sulphuric Acid, 20 drops; dissolve the Quinine in the acid to which add 1 oz. of Paregoric. Shade well and give a teaspoonful every hour until you have given 6 doses during the Intermission.
Spanish Method of Curing Chills, Fever
3/4 oz. coffee ground fine with 2 oz. lemon juice & 3 oz. of water drank warm avoiding all kinds of food.
Receipt for Making Soap
4 large bars of yellow soap
2 lbs of Sal Soda
3 oz. of borax
1 oz. of liquid ammonia
Shave the soap in thin slices, put it into 8 quarts of Soft water. When the soap is nearly dissolved, add the borax and sal soda & stir till all is melted. Pour it into a
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large tub. When nearly cool, add the ammonia slowly, mixing it well. Let it stand a day or two & cut into cakes or bars & dry in a warm place. Excellent for all household purposes; cost 3 cts a pound. (A $5.00 receipt)
For Dysentery: Take powdered Elm bark, Rhubarb and Charcoal, each 1/2 oz. Add a tablespoonful of common salt and the yolk of an egg reduced to a well-mixed powder in a mortar; dose a teaspoonful 3 to 6 times a day in a little water or molasses. Valuable in Dysentery or Flux and Diarrhea. Seldom fails to cure.
Shopping List
8 lbs beef
lamp chimbley
plaster paris
tea & coffee
1/2 gal. molasses
kerosene
1/2 gal. vinegar
6 yds calico for children’s aprons
1/2 hundred fine flour
dried peaches
1/2 ham -- 1.60
6 lbs honey -- 1.20
4 lbs butter -- .60
6 lbs lard -- .48
6 lbs veal --
83 lbs flour -- 2.70
Cheap, Efficacious and Speedy remedy for Fever & Ague
1 pt. Sweet Milk & 1 large tablespoonful of ground Ginger; mix well & heat over the fire to be drank as warm as possible when the chill is about to come on; repeat once or twice if necessary on the day of the Chill; if bowels are bound, purge previous to using.
Ambrosial Hair Tonic
Take Gum Benzoin, 2 drams; Castor Oil, 4 oz.; Alcohol, 1 quart. Shake well and add Oil of Lavender and Oil of Bergamot each 1 dram. Oil Cloves, Oil Rosemary, Oil Lemon & Oil Neroli each 30 drops. Tincture of Cantharides. 1/2 oz. To soften, promote growth and prevent falling out or turning gray.
Hair Restorative
Take Lac Sulphur 2 drams, Sugar of Lead 1 dram, Rose Water 8 oz. Mix and apply to the head once or twice a day. Will cause new hair to grow on bald heads and change gray hair to its original color.
Asthma Relief
Burn blotting paper soaked in a strong solution of Salt peter, a piece about as large as your hand & dried. By so doing can sleep almost as well as in health.
For Rattlesnake Bite: One tablespoonful of gunpowder; one tablespoonful of salt & the yellow of an egg. Beat together to form a plaster and apply to the wound. A yellow water will issue. Renew as often as it falls off until it will stick no more.
Perfect Cure for Warts & for Corns
Take a small piece of raw beef & steep in
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vinegar overnight & tie on the wart fresh every 2 weeks to effect a cure.
For Warts & Felons
Take common rock salt--dry it--and pound fine and mix with Spirits of Turpentine. Put in a rag and wrap round the finger. When dry, put on fresh. Cures in 24 hours.
Invocation
My Father, God-I turn away
From all the world to cling to Thee
And ask that Thy protecting arm
May be outstretched to strengthen me,
For I am weak unless I stand
So near that I can touch Thy hand.
Remedy for Bronchitis
Handfull each of elecampane, Sarsaparilla, and wild cherry root boiled in half gallon water. Strain and add sugar and wintergreen
For black specks (In the face)
After washing the face with warm water, dry with a rough towel & a preparation composed of 2 oz. White Brandy 1 oz. cologne & 1/2 oz. Liquor Potassa.
Dr. Breaking 12 acres at $3.25 -- $39.00
Dr. Plowing 5 acres last Fall -- 7.50
Dr. Team 2 1/2 days ploughing -- 2.50
Dr. Hauling wood -- .75
Husking corn one day -- 1.25
Dr. 41/2 days work at dugout and haying at 75 cts per day -- 3.39
Cr. 22 1/2 lbs of beans 8 cts -- 1.80
1/2 bushel corn -- .50
80 lbs meat @ 5 cts per lb -- 4.60
ONE FLAG OR NO FLAG
Oh, still let us strive for the Union of yore,
Shoulder to shoulder as ever before,
Together in hand, together in heart,
Together, together, for why should we part?
As one we have risen, as one we must fall
So one flag or no flag shall float over all.
(Chorus)
One flag or no flag, one flag or no flag,
So one flag or no flag shall float over all
So one flag or no flag shall float over all.
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For better or worse we have plighted our troth
And ruins of Union must cover us both,
Then living or dead we are joined in your fate,
Spite of your bloodshed, spite of your hate,
As one we have risen, as one we must fall,
So one flag or no flag shall float over all.
Though years are before us of toil and of pain,
Let’s bury the past and join hands once again,
Our heart shall not fail us or slacken our hand
Till all shout for union throughout this broad land
As one we have risen, as one we must fall
So one flag or no flag shall float over all.
Then still let us cling to our Union of old,
Tis better than life, aye, tis better than gold,
For what is of value to you or to me
If stars should be torn from the flag of the free?
As one we have risen, as one we must fall
So one flag or no flag shall float over all.
Receipt for Bowel or Summer Complaint
Allspice 1/2 oz.
Cinnamon bark 1/2 oz.
Cloves 1/4 oz.
White oak bark 1/4 oz.
Bruise & simmer slowly in 1 1/2 pts water down to 1/2 pt. Strain add 4 oz. of loaf sugar, bring it to boiling to melt sugar, then add 1/2 as much brandy.
Whitening Linnen
(from Harper’s Magazine)
According to a French writer, Crys, carb. of soda although so great a favorite with the washerwomen is a declared foe to Linnen since, not withstanding its cleansing power, it attacks the fibre and after a time makes it so rotten as to cause it to tear almost
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at the touch.
An improvement on this substance, it is said, consists in the employment of a solution in the proportion of two lbs of soap to 25 quarts of warm water to which are to be added one table spoonful of essence of turpentine and three spoonfuls of ammonia , the mixture is to be stirred by the help of a little broom and the Linnen immersed in it for several hours, the tub being completely covered.
The articles are then to be washed in the ordinary way, rinsed in tepid water and then blued, if this is necessary. The same solution can be used twice over by heating again and half the amount given of essence of turpentine and ammonia. It is claimed that this process is accompanied by great economy of time, labor and fuel and that the linnen experiences little or no injury,
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appearing finally in a condition of irreproachable whiteness. The ammonia, it is said, does not exert any corrosive effect upon the fibre and it evaporates immediately and the odor of the turpentine entirely disappears in drying.
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